96 PRELIMINARY NOTES ON THE ODONATA. 
Fie. 14. Anaz junius,Male. Photo by A. D. Wheden. 
kato and Lake Madison—and are too numerous to list separately. 
Wilson found it common at every stop made along the Mississippi 
River in July, 1907. 
As early as March 5th the writer has observed Anaxv junius ovi- 
positing in the ponds, usually the smaller and more shallow ones, and 
the worn condition of these females suggests that they had hibernated 
through the winter. While in copulation the pair flies rapidly about 
over the pond or settles upon a weed stalk near the ground. When 
ready to oviposit, they alight upon a floating stem, the male retaining 
his hold on the female while she plunges her abdomen half its length 
into the water and begins working its tip upon the submerged stem, 
the abdomen at first straight and then by degrees arched until the tip 
almost reaches the thorax. When once well at work she is not easily 
disturbed and will remain for fifteen or twenty minutes without chang- 
ing position, although the male at frequent intervals tugs away as 
though to lift her bodily into the air. Sometimes the female deposits 
her eggs unattended and Needham states that she may even descend 
beneath the water for this purpose. Both sexes are constant hunters 
and may be noted, at dusk especially, hawking about lawns and dwel- 
lings and over cornfields or along the margins of the woods. 
